To Bring Them Home
by chocolatequeen
Summary: Losing Rose only a month after they bonded hurt more than the Doctor could have imagined. Then he discovered he'd lost more than he'd realised, and he was determined to bring them home–Rose and their unborn baby. But how could he do that, without two universes collapsing? Part of The Course of True Love, after With This Ring
1. Chapter 1

**AN:** This is part of The Course of True Love. It starts a month after With This Ring. If you're reading that series, both Snapshots of Forever and With This Ring have both been marked complete.

Rose's eyes blinked open, and she smiled when she realised what had woken her up—a slight tickle as the Doctor ran lazy fingers over her back, and the buzz of his contentment in the back of her mind.

"Hmmm… Don't think I'll ever get over how good it feels to have you in my head." She pressed a kiss to his chest, then looked up at him.

The soft, unguarded smile was new since they'd bonded a month ago. Sharing a telepathic bond meant no hiding, and the Doctor had surprised her with how willing he was to open himself up to her fully.

The Doctor hummed his agreement, then bent down to kiss her. _It's better than I imagined,_ he told her as his lips moved slowly against hers. The physical touch deepened their telepathic connection, and Rose sighed when the red ribbon of the Doctor's love twined itself more tightly around her.

 _I love you,_ she told him as she nipped at his bottom lip. The Doctor's lips parted, and she soothed the spot with her tongue before sliding into his mouth.

The heightened intimacy telepathy gave their lovemaking still overwhelmed Rose. Feeling everything the Doctor felt, knowing exactly how he was reacting to her touch… With each caress, their bond brought them closer together until Rose couldn't separate her pleasure from his.

As they moved together, Rose focused on the bond and projected all the love she felt for her Doctor over it. He groaned her name, and when his movements sped up a second later, Rose scraped her nails along his back and allowed herself to be swept away by their shared bliss.

Later, as they basked in the afterglow, the Doctor rested his head on her shoulder and draped an arm over her middle. "What do you want to do today, love?"

Rose bit her lip. "Well…" she drawled, running her fingers through his hair. "We haven't told Mum that we're married yet."

The Doctor flopped onto his back and groaned dramatically. "Rose," he whined, "did you have to mention your mother while we're in bed together?"

She propped herself up on her elbow and smiled down at him. "Well, better that than mentioning us being in bed together while we're with my mum," she pointed out sweetly.

He rolled his eyes, then reached out and tickled her ribs. "All right, cheeky minx, if you want to tell your mum we've gotten married, I suppose we can go visit the Powell Estate. But if you end up leaving your mum's a widow…"

Rose smacked him lightly on the shoulder. "That would be kinda hard, since you'd just regenerate."

The Doctor shook his head solemnly, though his eyes were dancing. "Oh no, never underestimate the power of Jackie Tyler's slap."

oOoOoOoOo

They landed in London on a sunny spring day and walked hand in hand across the playground. "Now, let me do the talking," Rose murmured as they climbed the stairs to Jackie's flat.

"Oh, I intend to," the Doctor said blithely. "After all, I might be the weird alien who stole her daughter away from her, but you are the one who got married without your mum there. And of the two of us, she's less likely to kill you."

Rose rolled her eyes, then pulled her key out of the pocket of her black trousers and unlocked the door. "Mum, it's us!" she called out as they stepped into the flat. "We're back!"

Jackie darted out of the kitchen. Although she stopped and shook her head when she saw them, the Doctor saw the pleasure in her eyes and resolved to make more frequent trips back to the Estate.

"Oh, I don't know why you bother with that phone," Jackie scolded. "You never use it!"

Rose laughed and held her arms out. "Shut up, come here!"

When her mother wrapped her up in a hug, Rose's happiness washed over the Doctor and he smiled softly at her. Not too long ago, he would have run from this kind of domestics—and he wouldn't have known what he was missing out on.

Not wanting to interrupt their greeting, he tried to move around the women into the flat, but Jackie caught him by the collar.

"Oh no, you don't. Come here!"

The Doctor squirmed in her grip, but she had her hands on either side of his face and he couldn't avoid the kiss she planted on his lips.

 _Rose, a little help?_ he pleaded as Jackie kissed him again.

Rose leaned against the wall and laughed. "Mum, come on—let go of him. Or don't you want to know why we came back for a visit?" she teased, then spun around and jogged into the lounge, knowing those words would capture her mother's curiosity.

The Doctor breathed a sigh of relief when Jackie let go of him. _I love you,_ he told Rose fervently. _You are wonderful and perfect and I will take you wherever you want to go after this._

Rose arched an eyebrow, and he swallowed hard. _Oh, I think I'd like you to take me someplace—repeatedly,_ she told him, and the seductive note in her telepathic voice sent a shiver down his back.

"All right!" Jackie said loudly. "If the two of you could stop undressing each other with your eyes in the middle of my flat, that would be lovely. Ta!"

Rose felt her face turn hot. "Sorry," she muttered, then absently pushed her hair behind her ear.

"You're wearing a ring!"

Jackie's shriek made them both jump, but after a second, Rose slowly moved her hand down to look at her wedding band, flinging a surprised expression. "Huh. I guess I am. What do you think about that?"

Jackie swatted her arm. "Oh, don't you act all nonchalant, young lady," she said sternly. "Come on now, when's the wedding?"

The Doctor rubbed at the back of his neck, and Rose bit her lip. Jackie looked between the two of them, then nodded. "I see. Well, I suppose I should have expected you to elope—it's not like you're ever home anymore."

She sighed, then looked at Rose. "Are you happy, sweetheart? That's all I really want."

Rose nodded and reached for the Doctor's hand, feeling his own joy wrapped around her own. "Yeah. I am. _We_ are, _"_ she emphasised.

Something in the air stirred, and the Doctor stiffened as he tried to figure it out. "Jackie," he said cautiously, "has there been anything unusual happening on the Estate lately?"

Jackie jumped up and ran back into the kitchen, Rose and the Doctor hot on her heels. "Oh, I almost forgot, what with you surprising me and then telling me you'd gone and eloped. It's almost time!"

"Time for what?" Rose asked.

But before Jackie could answer, a silvery figure appeared in the kitchen along with them. Jackie smiled at the shadow, then put her hands on her hips and nodded at Rose.

"Dad, say hello to Rose. Ain't she grown?"

oOoOoOoOo

That was where the Doctor's nightmare began. He'd never imagined a scenario where he would face Daleks and Cybermen in the same battle—surely the universe couldn't be that vicious.

Except, apparently, it could. And as always, it was up to him to find a way to defeat both armies and save the two universes hanging in the balance.

In the end, the same Void the Daleks and Cybermen had used as a hiding place would be their ultimate prison. The Doctor almost laughed at the irony as he explained his plan to his captive audience.

There was a moment of silence, then Mickey asked, "Sorry, what's the Void?"

"The dead space," the Doctor answered. "Some people call it hell."

Mickey smirked as he draped his dimension hopper around his neck. "So you're sending the Daleks and Cybermen to hell." He looked over at Jake. "Man, I told you he was good."

The Doctor felt a glimmer of unease from Rose and he knew she'd just figured out the weak point of his plan.

She looked down at her hand through the 3D glasses she still wore. "But it's like you said. We've all got Void stuff. Me too, because we went to that parallel world."

The Doctor used their bond to reassure her as he walked across the room to stand in front of her. Rose pulled the flimsy glasses off and raised an eyebrow.

"All right, you've got a plan," she said. "What is it?"

"I think I'd like to hear this too," Pete said.

The Doctor spun around to face the others, grouped together near the broken window that had separated Yvonne's office from the room. "Well, to start, you lot will go back to Pete's world. Hey, we should call it that. Pete's World." He nodded at Pete and Jackie, standing side-by-side. "I'm opening the Void, but only on this side. You'll be safe on that side."

"And then you close it, for good?" Pete pressed.

The Doctor stuck his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. This plan was rather brilliant, even if he did say so himself. Rose nudged him with her elbow, and he shrugged sheepishly as he rubbed at the back of his neck.

Then he nodded once, for Pete's sake. "The breach itself is soaked in Void stuff. In the end it'll close itself. And that's it. Kaput."

"But you and Rose will get pulled in," Mickey protested.

The Doctor jogged back to Yvonne's office and grabbed a magnaclamp. "That's why I got these." He hefted it for show, then let it drop with a loud thud. "We'll just have to hold on tight," he added, nodding at Rose who was smiling again, now that she understood the plan.

He grinned back at her, then shuffled sideways until he was in front of one of the computers that ran the lever software. It would take a few minutes to come back online, and they were already running out of time.

"Well, what am I supposed to do while you've got that breach thingy open?" Jackie demanded.

The Doctor looked up at his mother-in-law, standing in the middle of the room with her hands on her hips. He blew out a breath and ran his hand through his hair. He knew what Jackie needed to do, but he also knew she would resist.

"You could go to Pete's World," he suggested as he moved to the other computer and got it running, too. "Have a new life with a new Pete."

Jackie raised an eyebrow, then looked at Rose. "You're staying?" Rose nodded, and Jackie shook her head. "Well, I'm not going anywhere without Rose."

Timelines tightened, and the Doctor gritted his teeth. But before he could say anything, Pete grabbed Jackie's hand.

"Oh, my God. We're going!"

He tried to force a hopper into Jackie's hand, but she pushed it back at him. "I've had twenty years without you, so button it. I'm not leaving her."

Rose's soft voice broke through the tension. "You've got to."

Jackie spun around, her eyes wide and angry. "Well, that's tough."

"Mum." Rose took her hands. "I've had a life with you for nineteen years, but then I met the Doctor, and all the things I've seen him do for me, for you, for all of us…"

"Reboot in one minute," the computer recited, interrupting Rose's speech.

The Doctor straightened up from the computer and watched Rose attempt to convince her mother that they needed to say a permanent goodbye. Her sorrow was impossible to miss, but even as he tried to comfort her, he felt her wrap her sadness up and shove it back as much as possible.

 _I love you,_ he told her, and he saw her spine straighten as his words gave her strength.

Rose lifted her chin. "He does so much, for the whole stupid planet and every planet out there. And he does it alone, Mum. But not anymore, because now he's got me," she concluded, stepping back to take the Doctor's hand.

Over Rose's shoulder, the Doctor had watched Pete inch closer to Jackie, the extra hopper in hand. As soon as he draped it over her neck, Jake slammed his button, and Pete, Jackie, Jake, and Mickey all disappeared.

"Oh, he's gonna get a slap for that," Rose muttered, staring at the empty space where her mum had just been.

"I can imagine," the Doctor said. "Why didn't you warn her?"

Rose shrugged. A band had tightened around her chest when her mum vanished, but she shoved the grief to the back of her mind—there would be time for that later.

"I just… it just felt like she needed to go," she explained, trying to puzzle through what she'd felt. "There was this… this feeling when she refused, like everything in the room suddenly got hazy. Like I was about to pass out, I guess."

The Doctor's eyes widened. "I hadn't realised you'd be able to tap into my time senses," he mused. "For some reason, it's crucial that your mum is in Pete's World. That's what you were feeling, Rose."

"Systems rebooted," the computer announced, reminding them both why they were there. "Open access."

Rose took a deep breath, then looked up at the Doctor. "So, what do we do now?"

The Doctor pointed at a nearby computer terminal. "Those coordinates over there, set them all at six."

Timelines spun around the Doctor as he returned to his own computer and made sure he'd set everything properly. He'd felt timelines fracture that morning when they'd seen their first ghost in Jackie's kitchen, and the intervening hours had only damaged them more. Even with a plan in place, he still felt time unravelling around him. It took a concerted effort, but in order to focus on what he was doing, he closed off his time sense as best as he could.

"We've got Cybermen on the way up," Rose announced suddenly.

"How many floors down?" The Doctor ran over to watch the security camera with her.

"Just one."

As they watched, another Cyberman stopped the ones marching up the stairs. Watching a Cyberman turn on its own kind gave the Doctor a burst of hope, and he shot Rose a toothy grin as the levers became operational.

He picked up the magnaclamps. "All right, Rose Tyler, Shiver to my Shake—are you ready for this?"

She took the clamp he offered and carried it over to one wall. "Oh, absolutely," she agreed. "Now, how does this thing work?"

The Doctor slammed the base of his clamp up against the wall, only a few feet from the lever. On the other side of the room, Rose mirrored him. "Press the red button," the Doctor instructed.

He heard the soft whoosh as both clamps attached to the walls. Then Rose tossed her hair back over her shoulder and grinned at him, with the cheeky hint of tongue she loved to tease him with.

The Doctor ran across the room and swept her up into his arms, pressing a hard kiss to her mouth. Rose's hands immediately slid over his shoulders to link behind his neck, and some of the tension in his body eased at the familiar gesture.

Reluctantly, he pulled out of the kiss and brushed his thumb over her lower lip. "For luck," he told her, his voice raspy. He swallowed and forced himself to focus. "When it starts, just hold on tight. Shouldn't be too bad for us but the Daleks and the Cybermen are steeped in Void stuff." He ran back to his side of the room. "Now, are you ready?"

She nodded and positioned herself at her lever. "So are they," she said, nodding at the window.

Daleks were swarming outside Torchwood Tower, and the Doctor knew it was time. "Let's do it!" he cried, and they both pushed their levers up. When his lever locked into place, he felt the suction from the Void begin. "Now, Rose!" he shouted, and they dove for their clamps, hooking their elbows around them just as the breach opened fully.

Brilliant light poured out of the breach and wind tore through the room, tugging them both towards the wall. Their clamps held, just like he'd known they would, and the Doctor laughed as he watched Cybermen and Daleks soar through the air into the Void, just as he he'd planned.

"The breach is open! Into the Void! Ha!"

Rose's giddy relief matched his, and they grinned at each other across the room. He knew they hadn't come out of the day completely unscathed—losing Jackie would hit Rose hard once things had settled down—but they were together.

 _The Stuff of Legend,_ Rose agreed.

A loud crack interrupted their euphoria. The Doctor watched, wide-eyed, as Rose's lever shifted just enough to move out of the online position. The force of the Void slowed, creating a surreal tableau of Daleks and Cybermen floating in midair above them as they moved slowly towards the breach.

 _No no no!_ Timelines twisted around them, and his hearts jumped up to his throat when he sensed what Rose was about to do. She flailed for the lever, but there was no way she could reach it.

The Doctor was already shaking his head when Rose looked at him, but her eyes were clear, showing not a hint of hesitation.

 _I've got to get it upright, Doctor._

His hearts stopped when Rose let go of her clamp and grabbed onto the lever. The Void behind her was still pulling both her and the lever towards the wall, and when she met his gaze, he finally saw fear in her eyes.

Then she planted her feet on the floor and grunted as she pushed the lever up. It seemed to take forever, but finally, the computer announced that the system was online and locked. As it did, the suction from the Void picked back up, and Rose's feet were pulled off the ground.

"Rose, hold on!" the Doctor yelled. "Hold on, love—please!"

Every muscle in her body tightened from the effort to hold onto the lever, but she still managed to send him a wave of calm over the bond. _I love you. No matter what happens, remember that._

 _Don't say that,_ he begged, even as he watched her fingers slip on the lever.

In the next five seconds, Doctor considered and rejected a hundred ways to rescue Rose. He simply didn't have any way he could save her, and as she finally lost her grip on the lever, he screamed her name.

Watching his bond mate fall towards the open Void hurt more than anything the Doctor had ever experienced. A place with no light, no sound, no time… it was hell, like he'd told Mickey, and he'd damned Rose to it by bringing her here.

At the last moment, Pete Tyler appeared again. Rose landed in his outstretched arms and looked back at the Doctor.

The Doctor was aware of every second passing and knew they only a moment before the breach would close completely. It wasn't enough time for words, but he could project as much love as possible over the bond. Rose's love met his, and while this was not the way he'd imagined using telepathy when he'd asked her to bond with him, he was grateful to have at least this much.

Then Pete pushed the button on his chest, and they disappeared. The breach started to close immediately after, as if Rose's presence in this universe had been holding it open—or, the Doctor suspected, as if Time had been kind to him for once and held off the inevitable long enough to allow Rose to get to safety.

The wind slowly died down and the fabric of the walls between the worlds knit itself back together. The Doctor's feet touched the ground, and he took heaving breaths as he stared at the wall, unable to believe what had just happened. Rose couldn't be trapped in a parallel universe. It wasn't possible.

When she didn't reappear, he walked slowly to the white wall. Closer to where the breach had been, he could feel a whisper of her mind against his—an echo of grief, a glimmer of anger. Desperate for more, he pressed himself against the surface, cheek and palm flattened as he tried to push himself through the Void to hold Rose again.

A moment later, the Doctor choked back a sob when he finally felt the last remnant of his connection with Rose break. He stayed where he was for a few more seconds, praying to all the gods he didn't believe in that she would come back.

When she didn't, when there was no pink-gold flare of love in his mind, he turned and shuffled out of the room, too bowed down with sorrow to even lift his feet off the ground.

He'd known he would lose her one day. He just hadn't expected it to happen so soon.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN:** If the end seems familiar, "What He Didn't Know" was an early version of this scene and I reused a few paragraphs from it.

 _Rose._

Rose pressed her face to the window, watching the sun set over the German countryside. It felt so good to have the Doctor in her head again, even if he was still too far away to actually talk to. The relentless headache that had started the moment the breach closed completely was gone.

Her fingers curled around the edge of the seat at the memory of the first few days in Pete's World. The pain from the broken bond had left her in a daze—she still didn't remember how she'd actually gotten from Torchwood to the mansion. But finally, she'd gotten used to it, had learned which pills would soften the pain to a dull ache she could work through.

The loneliness was harder to fight. Waking up every day, expecting the Doctor to be beside her. Reaching for his hand whenever she wanted to show him something.

Tears sprang to her eyes when she remembered the loneliest moment—looking at the two blue lines on the white stick that announced they were going to have a baby. If she could have had the Doctor with her for just one day out of the last three months, that's the day she would have chosen.

She sniffed and wiped the tears away. _But I'm going home now,_ she reminded herself.

The road curved, and the sun disappeared entirely behind the hills in the distance. Rose glanced at the SatNav mounted on the dash, wondering how much further they had to go. The Doctor's voice got stronger with every mile, but she thought they were probably only about halfway there.

 _Rose._

 _I'm coming, Doctor,_ she told him, though she doubted he would be able to hear her. His telepathy was stronger than hers, and it had been three months since she'd practiced talking to him over their bond.

Tiredness hit her suddenly, as it had been doing for the last two months. "Keep going this way," she told Pete through a yawn. "I'm gonna sleep for a bit. Wake me up if we get to a crossroads."

Pete nodded, and Rose's mum patted her shoulder. "You rest, sweetheart. We'll wake you up if we need to."

Rose shifted in her seat until her neck and head were supported by the headrest. Then she rested a hand on her still-flat belly and let herself drift to sleep, imagining how the Doctor's face would light up when he found out they were having a baby.

oOoOoOoOo

Twelve hours later, Rose was on the edge of her seat as Pete drove the Jeep straight onto the Norwegian beach. As soon as she'd seen the first signs twenty miles back, she'd known where they were going. Dårlig Ulv Stranden—Bad Wolf Bay. _A message to lead myself here,_ she remembered.

Rose's stomach gurgled uncomfortably as the vehicle lurched to a stop, and she took a few deep breaths and a sip of herbal tea before opening the door. She wanted to tell the Doctor she was pregnant; she didn't want him to find out when she threw up all over his Chucks.

The sea breeze blew her hair into her face as soon as she got out of the Jeep, and she was grateful her leather coat kept the wind from cutting through her. The surf pounded against the rocks behind her and seagulls cawed overhead, but those were the only sounds Rose heard as she walked across the wet sand.

Even the Doctor's telepathic voice had gone silent, and Rose stopped and stared at the ocean, rather than take a step in the wrong direction. She knew this was the right place, but seeing an empty beach instead of the Doctor with the TARDIS sent a shiver of trepidation down her back.

Her left hand clenched into a fist as she fought back her sudden fears, and her right rested on her stomach. _Are you ready to meet your daddy, little one?_ she asked, refusing to believe the day would go any differently.

The air shifted around her, and Rose turned towards the disturbance, dropping her hand as she did. Her fears sharpened when she saw a holographic projection of the Doctor, instead of the Doctor himself.

"Where are you?" she asked, immediately hating how small and weak her voice sounded.

"Inside the TARDIS." The Doctor's voice echoed, as if it were coming over a poor mobile connection. "There's one tiny little gap in the universe left, just about to close."

He took a deep breath, the way he did when he was upset, and Rose clasped her hands in front of her as the truth became painfully clear. He hadn't found a way to bring her home after all.

"And it takes a lot of power to send this projection—I'm in orbit around a supernova." He paused and tried to smile at her, but she could feel his grief over the bond. "I'm burning up a sun just to say goodbye."

Rose stared at the hologram of her bondmate and shook her head. She heard his voice, but her heart struggled to accept the words.

"You look like a ghost," she told him, needing to say something so the word "goodbye" wasn't lingering on the air.

"Hold on." The Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver at something Rose couldn't see.

Finally, he was standing in front of her, looking as real as possible. Rose crossed the remaining distance between them and reached for his face. "Can I—"

The Doctor shook his head and blinked back tears. "I'm still just an image, love," he told her, his voice raspy. "No touch."

Rose dropped her hand and nodded quickly, swallowing back the tears that threatened. "Can't you come through properly?" Maybe he couldn't bring her home, but if he could come through, they could build a life here—the two of them and their baby. She brushed her hand over her belly at the thought, holding her breath as she waited for his answer.

The muscle in the Doctor's jaw twitched. "I tried to find a way, Rose, but no matter what I did, two universes would collapse."

Rose reached up to smooth away the furrow between his brows before she remembered, no touch. In his voice, she could hear the long hours spent in the library, looking for a way to bring her home. The need to soothe his pain made her heart ache, and she had to press her lips together to hold back a whimper.

After they took a moment to compose themselves, the Doctor looked around, like he was checking out their surroundings. "Where are we? Where did the gap come out?"

Another gust of wind came up and blew Rose's hair in her face. She pushed it back, then answered the Doctor. "We're in Norway."

"Norway." The Doctor nodded. "Right."

Rose smiled at him. There was something so familiar and Doctor-ish about the way he pretended this was all going according to his plan. "About fifty miles out of Bergen," she elaborated. "It's called Dårlig Ulv Stranden."

The Doctor's eyes went wide, and he reached out as if to shield her, before he remembered he was just a projection. "Dalek?" he asked, his voice sharp and fearful.

"Dår _lig_ ," Rose repeated, enunciating the g. "It's Norwegian for 'bad.' This translates as Bad Wolf Bay."

They shared another pained smile. How could she have seen everything, and only given them a way to say goodbye? What was the point of being a goddess of Time if you couldn't bend reality to your will?

Rose clamped down on her bitterness and asked the most important question. "How long have we got?"

The Doctor's Adam's apple bobbed. "About two minutes."

A sob caught in Rose's throat. She'd been so certain when she heard his voice that she was going home, and instead they only had time for the briefest goodbye.

But if they only had two minutes, she wouldn't waste it talking about things that didn't matter. "I love you," she told the Doctor, keeping her voice as steady as possible.

"Oh, Rose." The Doctor's hands flexed at his sides, and the muscle in his jaw worked. "I love you, too."

"Am I ever going to see you again?"

"You can't, love," he whispered, and she saw tears glistening in his eyes.

Rose closed her eyes and ran her hand through her hair as she considered her next words. This was not how she'd planned to tell the Doctor he was going to be a father, but who knew how long it would take her to find a way across the Void?

"I see the whole family came," the Doctor said after a brief pause.

Rose smiled. He couldn't have given her a better opening. "There's five of us now," she told him. "Mum, Dad, Mickey… and the baby."

"You're not…?"

Even though their bond was weak, separated as they still were by the Void, the Doctor's devastation was strong enough to push its way across dimensions. Rose gasped when it washed over her, and in an instant, she knew what she had to do.

She licked her lips, then pasted a smile on her face and shook her head. "No." Rose attempted a laugh. "It's Mum. She's three months gone. More Tylers on the way."

The lie was sour in her mouth, but she told herself she was denying her baby to protect them. If the Doctor knew what he'd lost, he would force his way through this tiny crack and bring them both home, and damn the universes it would destroy.

The Doctor narrowed his eyes and his forehead creased, and Rose held her breath. Had he believed her?

"I miss you," she blurted out, hoping to distract him. "Is there… the bond. My head's been killing me."

Remorse pinched the Doctor's features. "I'm so sorry, love. If I'd known, I never would have…"

Rose slashed her arm through the air, cutting him off. "Don't you dare," she said fiercely. "I don't regret it—I never have. If we'd only had a day together before we were separated, it would have been worth it."

The Doctor breathed out a shaky laugh. "Rose Tyler," he said, "you are brilliant."

Rose tipped her head back, feeling a bit of her spirit return. "I am," she agreed. "And do you know what I'm going to do with that brilliance? I'm gonna find a way to come home."

"You can't, Rose." The Doctor's shoulders were slumped, his mouth turned down in defeat. "It's impossible."

She snorted softly and raised an eyebrow. "When's that ever stopped us?" she challenged. "There's still a Torchwood open for business on this planet, and we're already studying the old dimension hoppers."

"Rose…"

She shook her head quickly. "Nope. Nothing you say will stop me, Doctor. I promise I'll be careful, but I'm not staying here." She tried to smile, but she suspected it looked more like a twisted grimace. "I promised you forever, remember?"

The Doctor's mouth opened and closed a few times, and finally he nodded. "Just be careful, love," he begged.

The air shifted again, and Rose knew their time was almost over. She stepped closer to the Doctor's hologram and raised her hand to his face. Even though she couldn't touch him, it just felt right to try.

"I love you." She projected all her love and adoration over the bond, and was rewarded when he drew a sharp breath.

He leaned forward as if to press his forehead to hers, and Rose pushed herself up on her toes like she would if he were really there. Then a wave of love swept over her, and she cried out as her eyes flew open.

The Doctor's eyes were dark with grief and tears as he looked down at her. "Rose Tyler, I love you."

The final syllable came through faintly as the Doctor disappeared from the beach. A moment later, sharp pain stabbed through Rose's temple, telling her the bond had broken again.

Rose curled in on herself, with her arms wrapped around her waist. Tears welled up inside her, and she let them fall onto the sandy beach.

A moment later, she felt a hand on her elbow, and she turned into her mother's waiting embrace. "It's all right, sweetheart," Jackie crooned as Rose sobbed on her shoulder. "Just let it all out." She paused for a moment, then asked, "Did you tell him?"

Rose sniffed and shook her head. "I started to, but he looked so... I just couldn't tell him he'd lost his whole family, again." She stepped back and wiped the tears from her eyes. "So I told him it was you having a baby."

Jackie snorted. "No, ta," she said. "Moving universes is enough stress for my life-I don't need to add chasing after a toddler to that."

Rose pressed her lips together and tried to swallow back the tears, but a few leaked out. "I wanted him to know," she said hoarsely. "I wanted to tell him. I don't want to do this without him." Her voice broke on the last word.

Jackie wrapped her in another tight hug. "You may not have him, but you won't be alone," she whispered fiercely. "And as soon as this baby's born, we'll start looking for a way to send you both back to your Doctor."


	3. Chapter 3

The Doctor tried to brace himself when the image of the beach flickered. He clenched his hands at his sides to keep from reaching for Rose, and a moment later she disappeared, along with the windy beach she'd been standing on.

Pain replaced her soothing presence in his mind as the bond tore for a second time. The Doctor pressed his hands to his temples and moaned, while his knees struggled to keep him on his feet.

He took a few deep breath, then pushed himself upright and dashed around the console. "You made your choice a long time ago, you said," he muttered while twisting dials and turning levers. "You said you were never going to leave me. It's time to keep my promise now. I told you I would always come for you—I'm not leaving you there, Rose."

The TARDIS hummed loudly in protest as he set the transdimensional coordinates. Going through the Void was always a possibility. The only thing that had stopped him were the consequences. But even though she'd put on a brave face and promised him she would find a way home, he'd felt her agony clearly over the bond, and that drove every other thought from his mind. They were meant to be together, and he would make sure that happened.

The Doctor's hand was on the dematerialisation lever when he felt a shift in the air on the TARDIS. He sighed and looked up, ready to ignore whatever his ship had done to distract him.

He didn't expect to see another person standing on the other side of the console.

"What?" he asked, staring dumbly at the veiled woman.

She spun around, and her mouth fell open in a squeak of surprise. "Who are you?"

"But…" The Doctor shook his head, trying to grasp how this woman had ended up in his TARDIS.

"Where am I?" she demanded.

"What?"

Her voice rose to a shout. "What the hell is this place?"

"What? You can't do that. I wasn't…" The Doctor glanced at the console and the time rotor, then back at her. "We're in flight," he exclaimed, his voice rising in pitch on the last word. "That is, that is physically impossible! How did—"

"Tell me where I am," the woman interrupted. "I demand you tell me right now—where am I?"

The glower on her face was almost frightening, and the Doctor rocked back on his heels. "Inside the TARDIS."

"The what?" she asked, turning her head as if to hear better.

"The TARDIS," he repeated.

"The what?" she asked again, her voice louder this time.

"The TARDIS!" The Doctor bent over the controls, trying to figure out how this woman had gotten into the ship. His hearts clenched when he spotted the coordinates he'd just set—if the interloper had been just a few moments later, he would have been on his way through the Void to Rose.

"The what?"

He shook his head and moved away from the navigation panel to the sensors and started a scan. "It's called the TARDIS."

The woman took a deep breath, drawing her shoulders back before she shouted at him. "That's not even a proper word. You're just saying things."

The Doctor massaged his forehead. He already had a horrific headache from the bond tearing, and her shouting wasn't helping. "How did you get in here?" he asked, hoping to get her on her way and back to where she belonged.

She rolled her eyes and sneered at him. "Well, obviously, when you kidnapped me. Who was it? Who's paying you? Is it Nerys?" She looked up at the ceiling and rolled her eyes. "Oh my God, she's finally got me back. This has got Nerys written all over it."

The Doctor rubbed at the back of his neck. "Who the hell is Nerys?"

"Your best friend," she hissed viciously.

"Hold on, wait a minute." The Doctor looked the woman up and down, finally noticing her attire. "What are you dressed like that for?"

"I'm going ten pin bowling." She gestured to her white satin gown. "Why do you think, Dumbo? I was halfway up the aisle!"

The Doctor had to clench his eyes shut to keep tears from spilling over. His own wedding had only been four months before, and while Rose hadn't worn satin, the white dress reminded him of the sundress she'd worn when they'd exchanged their vows on the beach.

His eyes flew open when he realised the woman had just accused him of drugging her. "I haven't done anything!" he denied vehemently.

"I'm having the police on you!" she hollered as she circled the console. "Me and my husband, as soon as he is my husband, we're going to sue the living backside off you!"

The Doctor blocked her out again as he worked with the TARDIS, trying to get her to let him take the ginger bride back where she belonged. Even if he couldn't go after Rose, at least then he wouldn't be reminded of what he'd lost.

A glimmer of a memory, of a moment, teased the edges of his mind. He'd lost so much… why did he feel like he was missing even more?

The sudden realisation that five seconds of silence had passed for the first time since the woman had shown up in the TARDIS jolted him out of his thoughts. His head flew up and he spotted her running for the doors.

"No, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Don't!"

He was too late. She already had the door open, and the Doctor sighed and walked over to join her, looking out at the nebula. Normally, the flickering pinks and yellows and blues would have looked beautiful to him, but today, they just reminded him that earlier, he had been in orbit around a supernova. This nebula was what was left of his last connection to Rose.

"You're in space. Outer space. This is my… space ship," he told her, wincing when the TARDIS objected at the word. He patted the doorframe apologetically. "It's called the TARDIS."

"How am I breathing?" she asked, her voice soft for once.

"The TARDIS is protecting us."

"Who are you?"

And finally they were getting to the important bits. "I'm the Doctor. You?" He looked at the woman, and she slowly turned towards him, her face a mask of shock.

"Donna."

He studied her for a moment, then asked, "Human?"

"Yeah. Is that optional?"

"Well, it is for me," the Doctor mumbled, not feeling the same impish glee he usually did when he told people he was alien.

Donna sighed, and seemed to slump slightly as the air escaped her. "You're an alien."

"Yeah."

They stared out at the nebula a moment longer, then Donna said, "It's freezing with these doors open."

The Doctor rolled his eyes, then slammed the doors shut and ran back to the console. "I don't understand that and I understand everything. This this can't happen!" He spun around and looked back at Donna, waving his hand for emphasis as he spoke. "There is no way a human being can lock itself onto the TARDIS and transport itself inside." He shook his head and reached into the tool belt draped over the console for an ophthalmoscope. "Some sort of subatomic connection?" he muttered as he studied Donna's eyes. "Something in the temporal field? Maybe something pulling you into alignment with the Chronon shell. Maybe something macro mining your DNA within the interior matrix. Maybe a genetic—"

Donna slapped him, and he wheeled back and gaped at her.

"What was that for?" he asked indignantly.

She drew herself up, then bellowed at him. "Get me to the church!"

The Doctor stared at her for a second longer, then tossed the ophthalmoscope down onto the console. He'd been trying to get rid of her since she arrived anyway. "Right! Fine!" he snapped. "I don't want you here anyway! Where is this wedding?"

"Saint Mary's, Hayden Road, Chiswick, London, England, Earth, the Solar System."

The Doctor nodded as she spoke, his hands moving rapidly to set the coordinates. Donna was a puzzle he and Rose would have loved to solve together, but if he couldn't have Rose, he just wanted to be alone.

Donna paused, and when she spoke again a moment later, the accusatory voice was back. "I knew it, acting all innocent. I'm not the first, am I? How many women have you abducted?"

The Doctor looked up and froze when he saw her waving Rose's purple blouse around. It was the same blouse he'd wept into the day he lost Rose. He felt himself trembling and he tried to look away from it, but he couldn't.

His throat closed up, and he had to swallow twice before he could say, "That's my wife's."

"Where is she, then?" Donna demanded. The hand still holding Rose's shirt went to her hip. "Popped out for a space walk?"

The Doctor grabbed the console, picturing Rose on the beach where he'd left her less than ten minutes ago. "She's gone," he answered curtly.

Donna rolled her eyes. "Gone where?"

The Doctor leaned on the console and closed his eyes, getting the tears under control. "I lost her," he mumbled, without looking at Donna.

"Well, you can hurry up and lose me!" she snapped.

The Doctor sucked in a breath and pressed his hands to his eyes. He could see it again, Rose slipping from the lever and falling towards the Void. Pete catching her, and the last look of love she'd given him before she'd disappeared.

The silence apparently got through to Donna, because her next words were much less strident. "How do you mean, lost?"

The Doctor opened his eyes, aware that his eyelashes were wet. Donna put her hand to her mouth and set the shirt down.

"I'm sorry, Doctor."

The empty space in the Doctor's mind cried out for Rose. She was supposed to be here with him—she'd promised him forever. He could feel the pull of the Void again as he remembered the hope on Rose's face when she'd first seen his projection. She'd thought he was bringing her home, but instead…

He ground his teeth together so hard that his jaw hurt. "Right, Chiswick!" He flipped the lever and sent them hurtling towards Earth—towards Earth, and away from Rose.

It soon became clear the day wouldn't be as simple as just dropping Donna off and going back to the Vortex where he could grieve on his own. The Doctor grumbled under his breath as he chased the robot Santa who had kidnapped Donna down the motorway, but he had to admit the TARDIS' distraction was helping.

Until Donna looked at him and asked if Rose had trusted him. Of course Rose trusted him. She'd had enough faith in him to think he'd found a way to bring her home even though he'd told her more than once that travel across the Void was impossible.

So why had he felt a glimmer of deception over the bond during their last conversation?

The Doctor shook off the realisation as soon as it struck and focused on getting Donna into the TARDIS. The sense that Rose hadn't been wholly honest probably just meant that she'd been trying to put a brave face on their bleak situation.

Still, the sense that there was something he was missing niggled at him all day. He let one corner of his mind work at that problem while he devoted most of his attention to saving the planet one more time. But he still hadn't figured it out when everything was resolved and he could take Donna home.

It was a bit awkward, standing with her in the street outside her parents' home. This was when he would normally invite his new friend to travel with him, but today, he was desperate to be left alone to grieve.

He pulled out the sonic and scanned her quickly. "All the huon particles are gone," he told Donna when the results came back clean. "So I think I'll be off."

Donna looked over her shoulder where they could see her parents hugging through the front window. "Yeah, I'd better get inside. They'll be worried."

The Doctor smiled. "Best Christmas present they could have."

But instead of turning around and going into the house, Donna tilted her head and studied him. "Tell you what," she said after a moment. "Christmas dinner."

Christmas dinner, with family and crackers and the funny hats… He remembered the way Rose had smiled at him when he'd entered the flat, how they'd all laughed together when they'd put on their paper crowns… He shook his head quickly. He wasn't ready for those memories.

Donna must have seen his answer on his face, because she nodded towards the house, an inviting smile on her face. "Oh, come on."

"I don't do that sort of thing," he said, as firmly as possible.

"You did it last year," Donna pointed out. "You said so. And you might as well, because Mum always cooks enough for twenty."

The Doctor remembered the meal Jackie had managed to pull together with less than twenty-four hours notice, and he wondered what the Tylers would do for Christmas in Pete's World. "Donna I just—I can't," he said, his voice breaking a little. "The last time I celebrated Christmas, I was with Rose and I _can't_. Not without her."

"Rose." Her eyes lit with comprehension. "Is that your wife's name?"

He swallowed hard and nodded. A cold wind blew down the street, and when Donna brushed her hair out of her face, the Doctor remembered Rose doing the same thing on Bad Wolf Bay.

"Where is she, Doctor?" Donna asked, her voice softer than he'd ever heard it. "You said she's safe and alive, but why can't you bring her home? You obviously miss her."

The Doctor shoved his hands into his pockets. "She's trapped in a parallel world," he said, his voice raspy. "And I can't get there. If I tried, two universes would collapse."

As he explained the situation to Donna, he remembered the look on Rose's face when he told her the same thing. She'd been so desperately hopeful when she'd asked if he could come through properly, and he'd known exactly what she was thinking—it didn't matter which universe they were in, as long as they were together. The bleak look in her eyes, the way she'd brushed her hand over her belly as she waited for his answer…

The Doctor froze. The feeling he'd had all day that Rose had kept something from him suddenly fell into place.

"No!" He staggered back until he was leaning against the TARDIS and shoved his hands into his hair. His fingers grabbed and pulled at his hair as he tried to convince himself he was wrong.

Instead, he remembered the determined set of her jaw when she'd said, "Mum, Dad, Mickey, and the baby." The way her chin had wobbled a moment later when he'd tried to ask if she were pregnant. The patently fake smile she'd given him in response.

He slid down until he was crouched in front of the TARDIS, his elbows resting on his knees and his hands supporting his head as a band tightened around his chest, making it difficult to breathe. Rose was _pregnant_. In a parallel universe, without him. He'd left her to fumble through an inter-species pregnancy alone, and he would never see his child.

"Doctor?"

He flailed when a hand touched his shoulder, and when he looked up, Donna was standing a few feet away from him.

"What's happened, Doctor? What's wrong?"

He scrubbed viciously at his face, wiping away tears. Then he jumped to his feet and shot her a manic grin. A plan was already forming—he would go through and get Rose.

"You're right, Donna. I should go get her."

Donna blinked. "But you said two universes would collapse."

The Doctor waved his finger at her. "Nah, 'cause I'm brilliant. I can go get her." He sighed when Donna raised an eyebrow. "Rose is pregnant," he explained curtly. "I am not abandoning my pregnant wife to a parallel universe—I don't care what the consequences are."

She crossed her arms over her chest. "And I suppose you think destroying the universe is going to win you Father of the Year?"

Her acerbic voice cut through the madness the Doctor could feel threatening at the edges of his mind. What good would it do to bring Rose home, only to have the universe shatter around them?

He looked at Donna, his eyes burning with unshed tears. "I can't just leave them there," he croaked. "I can't."

She pursed her lips. "Of course you can't. But you need to find someone, Doctor. Someone as clever as you who can help you find a way to make it work. And…" She only hesitated a moment before ploughing on. "Someone to stop you. Because right now, you're one bad dream away from breaking all the rules to bring them home."

"Yeah," the Doctor sighed. There wasn't anyone as clever as he was—he would have to find a way to get Rose back on his own. He tugged on his ear and finally gave her a weak smile. "Thanks, Donna."

Her compassionate smile nearly broke him. Desperate to leave before he cried in front of her, he pushed open the TARDIS door and stepped inside. Donna called his name just before he closed the door, and he looked back at her.

"When you get them back, bring Rose 'round for a visit so I can meet her."

Tears swam in Doctor's eyes, and he blinked rapidly. "Yeah. Of course," he promised.

But once he closed the door behind him and took the TARDIS back into the Vortex, every thought left his mind, save one: he had to find a way to bring them home.


	4. Chapter 4

The Doctor's hearts raced with desperate hope as he strode through the TARDIS to the library. "The answer has to be here somewhere," he muttered to himself as he sat down at his desk, piled high with books on trans-dimensional travel. He'd read them all in the months since losing Rose, but hopefully a second (or thirtieth or fortieth) look would yield better results.

He raked his hand through his hair as he opened the first volume. "Not hopefully," he corrected. "I _will_ find the answer. Because I'm not leaving Rose to go through an alien pregnancy without knowing what to expect, and I won't leave my child to grow up without a father."

The Doctor flipped through the book quickly, his eyes darting back and forth over every page, scouring the text for the single line that would tell him how to bring Rose home. He scowled when he read each warning against attempting trans-dimensional travel alone, and when he got to the end of the book without learning anything new, he tossed it on the floor and picked up the next one.

And that was his life for the next two weeks. Reading, studying, rereading, and cursing the authors who insisted he couldn't go through the Void on his own. He only left the library to use the toilet, typically stopping by the galley to make a sandwich on his way back.

When his eyes were too tired and gritty to continue reading, he would move the short distance from the desk to the couch and collapse into an exhausted slumber for a few hours. His tie had been discarded on the second day and his oxford was half-untucked from his trousers. A scratchy layer of stubble covered his face, but he refused to break from his pattern of reading, eating, and sleeping. There would be time for rest when Rose came home.

His mood worsened as the pile of rejected books on the floor grew, and when the last book offered no magical solution, he slammed it shut and threw it across the room. It hit the wall next to the fireplace with a satisfying thunk, then fell on the floor.

The Doctor shoved back from his desk and rubbed at his weary eyes. Two weeks of work, dozens of books, and nothing—not even a hint of how he might manage to break the laws of physics and travel through the Void on his own. He didn't have a way to bring Rose and their baby home.

He sat up straight as a stray thought crept into his mind. Unless…

The Doctor leapt to his feet and paced in front of the fireplace, ignoring the book lying on the floor, pages fanned out. He knew where he could find a gap big enough to take the TARDIS across the Void—or more specifically, he knew _when_ he could find a gap.

All he had to do was pilot his ship back to a time before Canary Wharf, go through the Void, and hop forward to just after Rose fell. Then, once she was on the TARDIS, they could go back far enough to be able to make it safely through the Void again.

He pressed his tongue to the back of his teeth as he considered the plan. Strictly speaking, he would be crossing his own timeline. But as long as he didn't show up at the Pete's World Torchwood while his past self was there with Jake and Pete, he reckoned it would be all right. Safe enough, anyway—safer than Rose would be if he left her there alone.

His vision greyed out for a moment when he sensed the impending paradox. If he picked Rose up before she even found out she was pregnant, then she wouldn't be in Pete's World for him to talk to, and he wouldn't realise she was pregnant and decide to find a way to go through and bring them home.

The Doctor grabbed onto the mantel until his vision cleared, then spun away from the fireplace. "I don't care what the universe says," he growled as he stalked out of the library. "I'm the Doctor, the last of the Time Lords, and I am not leaving Rose and our baby on their own in a parallel universe. It's taken me all these years to realise the laws of time are mine, and they will obey me!"

The TARDIS rocked in the temporal turbulence as timelines swirled and broke around her, but the Doctor didn't sway from his decision. An exhilarating sensation of power and control swept over him as he strode through the corridors. This was what he was always meant to be—the Time Lord Victorious, ruler and arbiter of Time itself.

The Doctor was abruptly aware that the TARDIS had been leading him in circles, instead of letting him get to the console room. "Oh no you don't," he growled, slapping his hand on the coral wall. "I've served Time my whole life, and now Time can serve me."

The corridor didn't shift.

"Let me out of here!" the Doctor roared. He shook his fists at the ceiling. "I'm going to get Rose back, and I don't care what you think about it."

The TARDIS remained implacable, but the sympathetic note in her hum created the first fissure in the Doctor's defiance.

"I have to… I need…" His voice cracked, and he swallowed hard before shouting, "Rose needs me!"

The air in front of him flickered, and then a projection of Rose appeared out of thin air. The Doctor stumbled back, his hearts seizing when he saw her image.

"This is Bad Wolf Programme One," she said clearly. "The TARDIS and I decided to call them that because I'm leaving these messages to keep you safe, my Doctor."

When Rose smiled and pushed her hair back over her ear, the Doctor saw her ring sparkling on her finger. A sob caught in his throat when he realised she'd taken time out of their honeymoon to leave these messages for him. Knowing that even in the middle of their happiest time, she'd loved him enough to prepare for his deepest sorrow made him miss her more than he already did.

Rose's eyes softened and she looked directly at him. "I don't know what has happened to take me from you. I don't know how long we had, but if you're listening to this message, I suspect it isn't as long as we should have had. I'm sorry, love. I'm so sorry I couldn't stay with you for my forever, like I promised."

In the Doctor's mind, his end of the broken blond clamoured to connect with his mate. He clenched his hands into fists, trying to resist the instinct to dive into Rose's mind. She wasn't really there, and the failed attempt would only make the ache worse.

His efforts distracted him from her words, and when he paid attention again, she had a smirk on her face. "And I bet you're fussing and moaning now—typical."

The Doctor laughed weakly.

"The TARDIS has activated this message because you're planning something dangerous in an attempt to get me back. You can't do it, Doctor." She shook her head. "I know you miss me, and I know that wherever I am, I miss you, too. But you have to be careful, and you have to be safe."

Her voice broke, and the Doctor wished he could brush away the tears gathering in her eyes. "I broke the laws of time once to get back someone I love, and my punishment was to see you be taken by Reapers. Don't make me watch that again, Doctor—please."

The raw pleading in her voice cut through the Doctor's madness. Breaking the laws of time as he'd planned would almost certainly have triggered another visit from the Reapers. And this time, there wouldn't have been a Pete Tyler who could step in and cauterise the wound by dying in his place.

Two lonely tears tracked down Rose's face, and she wiped them away and cleared her throat. "I want you safe, my Doctor," she repeated. "Protected even from yourself."

Even though he hated what she was telling him, the Doctor felt a spark of happiness at her words, too. He'd forgotten how well Rose knew him, and how loved that made him feel.

"I love you, Doctor," she said, as if she'd managed to read his mind, even from months in the past. "Never forget that." She smiled sadly at him, then the image flickered and disappeared.

"No," the Doctor moaned. He stretched his arm out, but Rose wasn't there—she'd never been there. _How many times will I have to watch her vanish in front of me?_ His throat closed up, and he turned slowly from the spot where he'd seen her hologram and walked away.

The TARDIS buzzed in the back of his head, and he wasn't surprised when a door appeared—a very familiar door. The Doctor took a deep breath, and for the first time in four months, he entered the bedroom he'd shared with Rose.

Everything was exactly as they had left it. Looking at the bed, covers tidied but still obviously slept in, the Doctor remembered waking up that morning with Rose in his arms. Her happiness as she awakened had blended with his own until the sheer joy of the moment had taken his breath away.

Unshed tears burned in his eyes, but he refused to turn away from the memories. As he undressed, he remembered soft kisses slowly becoming passionate, the way Rose had rolled onto her back and urged him to move on top of her, her cries as they'd made love.

His hands stilled on his zip. Was that when their baby had been conceived? Rose couldn't have been pregnant for more than a few days before she was taken from him—he would have detected the change in her hormones as soon as the embryo was successfully implanted in her uterus.

He bit his lip and forced the thought aside. All that really mattered was that a child had been created out of their love. A child who was now trapped in a parallel universe with Rose.

The Doctor's breathing grew ragged as he finally tumbled onto the bed. Rose's scent surrounded him, and he reached for her pillow, wrapping his arms around it and letting his tears fall. He was tired enough and his mind missed Rose enough that he could almost imagine her hands running through his hair, soothing him as he wept. Imagined or not, the sensation relaxed him, and he soon fell asleep.

oOoOoOoOo

Rose leaned back in her office chair and rubbed at her forehead, in between her eyes. She'd been staring at the report on the dimension hoppers for hours. Torchwood's habit of appropriating tech they didn't understand had made the dimension cannon project a nightmare. They had the hoppers, but no one actually knew how they worked—and until they figured that out, they couldn't build on the design.

She glanced out at London, wincing when she realised it was dark enough that the sun must have set hours ago. _Oh, Mum won't be happy._ Jackie had been complaining about the long hours Rose was working, claiming it wasn't good for the baby.

As if they could sense the direction her thoughts were going, the baby shifted and kicked slightly. Rose chuckled and rested her hand on her belly. _You're made of stronger stuff than that, aren't you little one?_ She rubbed a circle over her stomach, and the baby's movements slowed. _You've got stardust in your veins, don't you? We just need to find your daddy so we can be out there in the stars like we're supposed to be._

Rose felt something in her temple a moment later. She would have dismissed it, except it didn't feel like the same twinge of pain that still lingered from the broken bond. This was more like… like the jolt you got from a mild electrical current.

It wasn't a new sensation, and Rose furrowed her brows as she tried to remember when she'd felt it before. It happened again, just as she landed on the memory, and she gasped in amazement.

The baby was attempting telepathic contact.

Rose closed her eyes and reached out for the fledgling telepathic mind that had connected with her own. _Are you there?_ She held her breath, and a moment later, the baby's mind hesitantly brushed against her own.

Tears rolled unchecked down Rose's cheeks as she cradled her child's mind to her for the first time. The baby couldn't communicate in words, but Rose could feel a question as the infant mind continued reaching. Her heart ached when she realised what the baby was looking for—or rather, who they were looking for.

 _Your daddy isn't here, little one,_ she explained. _But as soon as we can, we're going to find our way home to him._

Rose remembered a moment standing at the door of the TARDIS with the Doctor as they floated in space. They were on the edge of a nebula, and the light had spun around them.

 _That's where we belong, sweetheart,_ she told her child. _And we'll be back there one day, I promise._

oOoOoOoOo

" _But I've seen it in comics," Mickey protested. "People go hopping from one alternative world to another. It's easy."_

 _The Doctor rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. "Not in the real world."_

 _He sighed and leaned back against one of the TARDIS struts. "It used to be easy," he admitted. "When the Time Lords kept their eye on everything, you could hop between realities, home in time for tea. Then they died, and took it all with them. The walls of reality closed; the worlds were sealed. Everything became that bit less kind."_

The Doctor burrowed closer to Rose's pillow as he woke up, silently cursing his subconscious. He really hadn't needed the reminder that it was his own fault he couldn't bring Rose home. If he hadn't killed them all…

He groaned and tossed the covers back, then got out of bed and shuffled into the ensuite. Now that he was rested, he couldn't stand the dirty, itchy feeling of not having bathed in weeks. He grimaced at his reflection—had he really been planning to go get Rose looking like that?

 _You were a little mad,_ he told himself as he climbed into the shower.

The hot water stimulated his brain cells, and his mind went back to the conversation he'd dreamed about. He'd always known, really, that there was no way to safely break through the Void. He'd known a year ago when he told Mickey it was impossible, he'd known months ago when Rose had disappeared with Pete to the parallel universe, and he'd known two weeks ago when he'd realised she was pregnant.

That was it, then, he realised as he scrubbed his body clean. Unless he could find another member of a pan-dimensional species who could hold a wormhole through the Void open on this end while he went through to Rose… but as far as he knew, he was the last pan-dimensional being left in this universe.

There used to be dozens of pan-dimensional species, along with the Time Lords. But they had all been wiped out by the Time War, or they had left the prime universe to take refuge in other parallel universes and had never returned. With the Time Lords gone, that left only him.

The Doctor froze in the middle of shampooing his hair, only moving when suds started dripping into his eyes. He shifted back under the water, and his mind raced as he rinsed the shampoo down the drain.

Only him, but he wasn't only him, was he?

For the first time in months, real hope burned in his hearts. It was a crazy idea, and would certainly bend the rules regarding crossing your own timeline, but that was a rule he'd broken more than once, and never with any dire consequences.

It was time to get help from the one person as devoted to Rose Tyler's health and happiness as he was—himself.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN:** Finally to the reunion! It feels good to be done with the angst and on to the happy part of the fic.

The Doctor's hands were shaking with excitement as he knotted his tie. As soon as the possibility of seeking help from his past self had occurred to him, timelines had shifted. There were still variables, nothing was set in stone… but that decision had opened up the possibility of bringing Rose home.

He peered in the mirror and fixed his hair so it would stick up just like Rose liked it. If this worked, he would see her again before the day was over. Once he was satisfied with the overall effect, he shrugged into his brown suit jacket, only taking time to do one button before darting out of the room.

He laughed as he spun in circles around the TARDIS console. Finding himself would actually be the simplest part of the whole day—he'd known exactly when to go as soon as the idea had struck him. Rose had spent a weekend at home for a cousin's wedding, and he, grumpy git that he was, had resisted all her attempts to be her date for the weekend. Instead, he'd gone to Enesta, a planet with the perfect atmosphere for TARDIS maintenance.

The TARDIS flew faster and more smoothly than she'd done in years, and the Doctor laughed again. "We're going to bring them home, old girl," he crowed, stretching across the console and patting the time rotor. The lights flashed in response, and then they landed.

Inside a different TARDIS, a different Doctor's ears pricked. The sound was muffled, coming through the closed doors, but he would have sworn…

The TARDIS doors swung open, and a pretty boy in pinstripes and the coat Janis Joplin had given him burst into the ship. He immediately raced for the console and started spinning around, adjusting the controls without even saying hello.

"Oi!" the Doctor said. "My TARDIS, if you don't mind—have you lost your manners as well your fashion sense?"

The other man didn't pause, but he did look up at him, and the Doctor took a step back when he saw the barely contained grief in his brown eyes. "Rude and not ginger," he said, his lips twisted in a miserable half smile.

The TARDIS chimed, and the other Doctor sighed and pulled his hands away from the console. "Right, we don't have time for the usual insults about wardrobe and who's more clever. I need your help to rescue Rose."

Every snarky comment the Doctor had prepared evaporated in an instant. "What happened?" he barked.

The older Doctor leaned heavily on the console. "She's gone. Trapped in a parallel universe." His shoulders heaved as he took a shuddering breath. "Pregnant with our child."

The Doctor shoved his shock aside. His older self was right—they didn't have time for bickering and debating. Telepathic contact was vital for a developing Gallifreyan mind. Without it, the foetus' telepathy would turn inward, leaving them handicapped for the rest of their life.

Even if Rose had somehow been able to share the bond he could now sense in the other Doctor's mind, she was still human. There was no way she could offer their baby the support their growing mind needed.

"Right," he said, shoving the other Doctor away from the console. "I'll take care of things here. You get back into your TARDIS and get ready to go through the Void as soon as the wormhole opens."

The older Doctor smiled, and some of the tension around his eyes eased. "I've already set the exit vector for the correct parallel universe," he said, pointing to the navigation panel.

"Good. Now get out of here, and bring them home."

oOoOoOoOo

For once, Rose woke up without her alarm clock, and with a smile on her face. She tried to remember her dream, to figure out why she was so happy today, but she couldn't pin the feeling down to anything more than a general sense that something good was going to happen today.

In the car on the way to Torchwood, the baby started turning somersaults. Rose leaned against the back seat as the driver took them into London, and rested a hand on her six-months-pregnant belly.

Immediately, the baby's mind clamoured against her own, and suddenly Rose was buzzing with anticipation. Something was coming. She could feel it as strongly as she had at Canary Wharf before she'd been trapped here, only this time, the feeling was light and happy instead of heavy and foreboding.

Rose frowned; the Doctor had told her she was picking up on his own time senses, but he was still on the other side of the Void. She didn't know much about Gallifreyan gestation, but she doubted the baby's senses had developed enough to detect changes in the timelines.

Which meant the time senses were her own. _"I see everything. All that is, all that was, all that ever could be."_ She nodded and let out a slow breath. If Bad Wolf had changed her enough to give her time senses, it would also explain how she'd gotten pregnant when the Doctor told her it would be impossible.

Rose didn't know how to read timelines, but in her mind, a major positive shift in her future could mean only one thing: the Doctor was coming. She tried not to get her hopes up, but by midmorning, the feeling was too strong to ignore. She cancelled the rest of her meetings for the day, then went through all her active files and marked them with potential replacements. Her desk was clear by lunch, and after a quick call to Pete, she left Torchwood for what she hoped would be the last time.

oOoOoOoOo

Back in his own TARDIS, the Doctor turned the scanner on so he would know the moment his past self opened the wormhole to Pete's World. While he waited, he cleaned the console, knowing that a speck of dust in the wrong place could throw their landing off by a few thousand miles, or a few years. He shuddered at the possibility of arriving late; it was bad enough that he'd missed the first few months of Rose's pregnancy.

All the fears he'd managed to set aside for the day crept back into his mind. Inter-species pregnancies could be dangerous, and there was absolutely no data on a human-Time Lord pregnancy. Rose or their baby could be severely at risk, and he hadn't been there to help.

And what about external risks? What if Torchwood discovered she was carrying an alien baby? Torchwood in this universe had followed the motto, "If it's alien, it's ours." What about the Pete's World Torchwood?

An alert on the console flashed before he could work himself up any further. The Doctor's gaze swung to the monitor, which now showed an open wormhole through the Void. Despite all his concerns, he grinned and reached for the controls.

To his surprise, the time rotor started moving on its own. After blinking a few times, the Doctor laughed and grabbed onto the railing as his ship flew them into a parallel universe—one that contained his whole universe.

The engine whirred unhappily at the strain of trans-dimensional travel, and the grinding noises made the Doctor wince and look worriedly at the console. But the ship seemed to be holding together better than she had the first time they'd gone through the Void, so he held on tighter and let her fly.

Finally, they landed with a bone-rattling thunk. The Doctor took a few deep breaths, then ran down the ramp and threw the door open.

As soon as he stepped out into the cool evening air, the pain in the Doctor's mind eased. Rose was here—Rose, and a tiny, still developing consciousness that he recognised immediately as the baby.

Weak-kneed, he leaned back against the TARDIS and stared at the large mansion he'd parked close to. He'd made it—they were here.

Before he was able to move, a door open, casting a pale yellow square of light onto the garden. "Doctor!"

He knew that voice, knew it better than any other voice in the universe. A sob caught in his throat, then he pushed off the TARDIS and ran towards Rose. He could hear his hearts pounding in his ears as he pumped his arms, eager to hold her again.

But even in his desperation, he remembered to be careful of the baby. He slowed down as he reached her and caught Rose with his hands on her hips to avoid slamming into her pregnant belly.

"Rose, oh Rose you're here," he whimpered as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.

Rose tilted her head back, and he didn't hesitate for an instant, bending down to press his lips to hers. The kiss tasted salty, but couldn't tell if it was because of his tears or hers.

After a moment, he moved one hand up to her temple to fully restore their broken bond. Rose sighed against his lips when the pain of the last few months was washed away in the euphoria of their reunion.

 _I know, love. I know,_ the Doctor told her as he trailed his lips along her jawline. _I've missed you so much._

Rose turned her head, and the Doctor gladly moved back to her lips, relearning her taste after four months apart. She slid her hands over his shoulders when he took her bottom lip between his own, alternating between suckling it gently and scraping his teeth over it.

Her hands carded through his hair, and he groaned when he felt her nails dig into the nape of his neck. _God, Doctor,_ she said when he pulled her closer. _Kissing you is even better than I remembered._

A third telepathic presence worked its way into their mental embrace, and the Doctor pulled out of the kiss with a gasp. The baby was begging for attention, and he immediately dropped to his knees in front of Rose and pressed his temple to her belly.

 _I'm here, little one,_ he said, beckoning for his child to come to him. _I've missed so much, but I promise I'm here now, and we're never going to be separated again._

Rose ran her hands through his hair. _You came for us,_ she said, and he could feel her surprise. _You said it was impossible, but you came anyway._

The Doctor pressed a kiss to her belly. _Of course I came for you. I wanted to rip the universes apart as soon as I realised you were pregnant._

He pulled the baby's mind closer to his, then reached for Rose over the bond and brought her into the embrace. _We made this, Rose,_ he told her, overwhelmed by the moment. Timelines spun around them, and he caught glimpses of the new life they would live together—them and their children, travelling together through space and time.

Time expanded around Rose as she shared the first telepathic embrace with both the Doctor and the baby. They had so much to look forward to—more than the Doctor even realised.

She reached for him mentally and redirected his focus to the golden strand that wound all throughout their life. _Doctor, look at this._ She touched it, and they both sucked in a breath when the raw power of time surged through them.

Rose quickly pulled back from the golden strand, then looked down into the Doctor's awestruck eyes. "I promised you forever," she said quietly. "And that's what we're going to have."

The baby kicked, and the tiny mind sparkled with happiness. The Doctor laughed and pressed one more kiss to Rose's pregnant belly before jumping to his feet.

Rose could feel his eager desire to sweep her up and carry her into the TARDIS, and she shook her head. "Come on," she told him, taking him by the hand and encouraging him to walk with her. "Everyone is waiting to say goodbye." He sighed, but laced their fingers together and walked beside her without a complaint.

They'd only taken a few steps when the door opened further and her family came out to meet them. Mickey had the suitcase she'd packed that afternoon, and he walked past her to put it down by the TARDIS.

Her mum rushed across the lawn to wrap her up in a hug, and tears prickled in Rose's eyes as she realised this would probably be the last time she'd see her mother. "I'm sorry," she murmured as they held each other. "I wish I could have both you and him, but…"

Jackie pulled back and shook her head. "No point hoping for the impossible." She pointed a finger at the Doctor. "Although, if anything ever happens to make it possible, I expect you to bring her back for a visit."

The Doctor nodded. "Of course, Jackie. We'll monitor the walls between the worlds from our side, and I expect Torchwood will be keeping an eye on them from this side."

Pete had been standing awkwardly in the background, his hands in his pockets as he witnessed the goodbyes. But at this, he stepped forward and put his arm around Jackie's waist. "You can count on it, Doctor," he promised. "We've seen first hand how a breach in the Void can affect a world, so we'll keep a close eye on things."

"Yeah, that'll be my job," Mickey cut in. "I've already got your files on the dimension cannon project, Rose."

Rose smiled and gave him a hug. "I wouldn't trust it to anyone else."

The Doctor cleared his throat. "I hate to cut things short, but unfortunately, the wormhole I came through won't stay open forever. Rose and I need to get back to our universe."

The TARDIS' hum changed pitch, confirming the Doctor's words. Rose looked over her shoulder at the ship, then back at her family. "I love you—never forget that."

Then she took a deep breath and reached for the Doctor's hand. "Let's go home."


	6. Chapter 6

**AN:** This should satisfy all of you who've been waiting for more of Nine!

Rose bit her lip and held her breath as the Doctor opened the TARDIS door. She could still feel her family's eyes on her, but for the moment, the excitement of being home again far outweighed the sorrow of leaving them behind.

When the door opened and she saw the console room, lit by the familiar blue-green light, a sob choked in her throat. The Doctor picked up her suitcase, then took her by the elbow and led her gently over the threshold. A moment later, the TARDIS herself wrapped her in an affectionate telepathic embrace.

Rose rested her hand on a coral strut, letting the unique feeling of the telepathic ship flow through her mind again. A moment later, the baby kicked and turned in her womb. She could almost feel tiny hands grasping for the connection with the TARDIS, and she brought the baby's mind closer to hers so they could get to know the ship.

A moment later, the Doctor's mind brushed against theirs, and she looked at him over the console. "Come sit down on the jump seat, Rose. She's added a safety belt so you won't fall if the ride gets bumpy—and going through the Void will definitely be turbulent."

Rose let go of the strut and walked over to the jump seat. "How exactly did you manage to get through the Void?" she asked as she buckled herself in. "I thought it was impossible."

"And yet you were going to try," the Doctor countered as he reset the controls. "A dimension cannon?"

His words were teasing, but seeing his hands shake slightly as he closed down the gravitic anomaliser reminded Rose of his earlier words— _I wanted to rip the universes apart as soon as I realised you were pregnant._ She made a mental note to come back to that, then redirected the conversation.

"Come on, tell me," she cajoled. "How'd you do it?"

The Doctor wrapped his fingers around the dematerialisation lever and a grin finally stretched across his face as he threw it, sending them hurtling towards home. He laughed, then spun around and sat down beside Rose, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

"I followed some very good advice and got help from someone as clever as I am." Rose's forehead wrinkled in confusion, and he chuckled and tapped her nose. "And beyond that, love, you'll just have to wait and see."

Rose huffed, and the Doctor giggled at the exasperated frown on her face. _I missed this,_ he told her as he bent down and pressed his lips to hers. _Just being with you, talking to you, teasing you…_

Their teeth clacked together as the TARDIS jolted, and they broke apart, wide grins on their faces. "Hold that thought," the Doctor murmured.

Rose nodded, then shifted so her head was resting on his shoulder. The Doctor's hearts stuttered as he turned his head and kissed the top of her head. Just twelve hours ago, he'd been resigned to the fact that he'd never see Rose again. He pulled her closer and buried his nose in her hair, catching the combination of her familiar fragrance blended with the new pregnancy hormones.

 _Not new anymore._ He ran his hand over her belly, trying to gauge how far along she was.

Rose put her hand over his and laced their fingers together. "Six months."

The Doctor sighed; he'd known when he arrived in Pete's World that more time had passed for her since their last conversation than the two weeks he'd lived through, but three extra months didn't seem fair. For Rose to be left alone, pregnant with an alien child…

He felt Rose shift next to him, and he knew she'd picked up on the guilty direction his thoughts were travelling. Before she could call him on it, the TARDIS landed and the engines went silent.

Rose straightened up and looked at the door. "We're back?" she whispered. "Back in the right universe, with no zeppelins and chips that taste like chips?"

The Doctor lifted an eyebrow. "You'll have to tell me more about these rubbish chips you apparently suffered through, but yes. We're back. Why don't you open the door and tell me what you see?"

He knew exactly what she'd see. He'd taken them straight back to Enesta, and he could feel his other self only a few dozen yards away. Rose had once told him she wished she could have said goodbye, and he was determined to give her that chance now.

She cast him a curious look, then slid off the seat and walked down the ramp. The Doctor stood up and leaned against the railing as she opened the door, waiting for her reaction.

He could hear her gasp from where he stood, and a moment later, her head swung around and she stared at him with wide eyes. "Someone as clever as you," she said, a hint of amusement in her voice.

The Doctor smiled. "As clever as me, and as devoted to your safety as me. Why don't you go tell him we made it back safely?"

Rose bit her lip. "Is it you?" she asked. "I mean, the you I know?"

He nodded. "Inside that TARDIS, there's a grumpy, leather-wearing Doctor who is very worried about you."

To his surprise, instead of running across the clearing, Rose jogged back and hugged him first. "Thank you," she whispered, and then she was gone.

Alone in his TARDIS, the younger Doctor had just made it through one of the most nerve-wracking ninety minutes of his life. From the moment his older self appeared on his ship, his entire life had been thrown into upheaval. It seemed impossible to him that he would not only allow a romantic relationship to develop with Rose, but that she would one day be pregnant with his child. But the mental anguish he'd sensed in the other man was unmistakable. Even if he was wrong about Rose being pregnant, she was alone in a parallel universe suffering the pain of a broken bond.

What he'd asked had been easy enough. Every Time Lord knew how to create a wormhole through the Void and keep it stable enough for trans-dimensional travel. Admittedly, it would have been easier if he were not working alone, but it could be done.

The Doctor had watched the TARDIS' progress through the Void on the monitor, then the ship had disappeared from the scanners when it reached the universe Rose was trapped in. He'd waited an interminable thirty minutes, working against the basic laws of physics to keep the wormhole open until Rose and his future self started travelling back to the prime universe.

And now, they were here. He'd felt them come through the Void ten minutes ago, and the other TARDIS had landed on Enesta just a moment ago. His self-protective instinct screamed at him to take off before he could see the future Rose, before he could be reminded that as much as he loved her now, he apparently had to wait until he regenerated before he could have the relationship with her that he dreamed of.

The TARDIS blew a raspberry at him, and he knew that even if he were truly able to leave without seeing Rose, she had no intention of taking off just yet.

The door creaked open, and the Doctor caught his breath when Rose poked her head inside. The differences between her and his younger Rose were obvious at a glance—her hair was shorter, and thicker, and a bit more naturally tinted. Her face was fuller, and her skin glowed with the vibrancy of pregnancy.

More obvious than any physical change was the way she felt in his head. Both her mind and the tiny, developing consciousness of their unborn child twined around his own mind, filling a hole he'd struggled with since the moment his people were lost.

"Well, are you going to stand there all day?" He kicked himself as soon as the gruff question left his mouth, but instead of getting upset, Rose just rolled her eyes and stepped into the TARDIS.

All the air left the Doctor's body in a rush when he saw Rose's pregnant figure. Knowing she was pregnant was one thing; seeing physical proof that she carried his child was another.

Concern flickered in Rose's eyes and she jogged over to him. "Let's sit down, Doctor," she suggested, gesturing to the jump seat behind him.

The Doctor sat down readily, still trying to process everything. To his surprise, Rose sat down beside him, then lifted his arm and wrapped it around her shoulder before nestling into his side. It was all achieved so quickly and effortlessly, as if them cuddling together on the jump seat were an everyday occurrence.

 _Well, it probably is_.

Rose looked at him, amusement glinting in her eyes, and he realised that with a full bond between them, his thoughts were an open book to her. His ears turned hot, and he was grateful when she didn't comment on train of thought.

"Well, was there something you wanted, or are you just going to stare at me all day?"

"Might do," Rose replied, her cheeky smile teasing him. "It's been a while since I saw this face, after all." The Doctor rolled his eyes, and Rose shook her head. "No, I wanted to thank you. Without you, the baby and I might have been stuck in that parallel universe forever."

At the mention of the baby, the Doctor's hand drifted down from her shoulder to hover over her pregnant belly. "Can I…"

Rose took his hand and put it on the round swell of her stomach. "The baby's moving," she whispered. "Can you feel it?"

The Doctor felt the ripple of movement as the baby turned a somersault. Then the infant mind reached out for him, asking to be held close. The Doctor sucked in a breath and reached out carefully, wrapping his own consciousness around his child's.

"They know me," he whispered to Rose when the baby relaxed into his embrace with complete and utter trust.

Rose traced patterns on her stomach. "Of course they do. You're Daddy."

Tear pricked in the back of the Doctor's throat, and he swallowed hard to get rid of them. "You didn't need to thank me for helping bring you home," he said, replying to her earlier comment. "No matter what kind of trouble you land in, I will always come for you, Rose."

To his bafflement, Rose's eyes filled with tears. "I'm sorry," she said as she burrowed into his chest, letting her tears soak through his jumper. "Pregnancy hormones. It's just… that's what you told me the first time you told me you love me."

The Doctor tugged Rose closer and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. Her mind brushed against his, and he had to grit his teeth to keep from diving into the warm sanctuary it offered.

The bond didn't belong to him. Even though it resonated just as clearly in his mind as it would in his future, she hadn't bonded with this version of him—she'd married the future, pretty boy instead. As impossible as it seemed that she would want a bond with him at all, he was a little jealous of that relationship.

Rose sighed against the Doctor's shoulder. No matter what his face looked like, he was always the same man. Never able to see himself as she did, always thinking he didn't deserve her. She turned towards him, deliberately letting her lips brush against his jaw. His breath caught in his throat, and she rested a hand on his cheek and waited for him to look down at her.

The longing in his blue eyes made her heart ache. Rose rubbed her thumb over his cheekbone and smiled when he leaned into her caress. His ears caught her eye, and she moved her hands up to touch them, like she'd dreamed of for over a year.

His eyes widened, and she knew he'd caught that thought. "How…" he asked, his voice raspy.

She shook her head. "You were the Doctor I fell in love with," she told him. "Or… maybe I should say that I fell in love with you when you looked like this—because regenerating isn't really becoming a new person. It's just… changing a bit. My current you, the one waiting in our TARDIS, he's still you—just with a bit more experience and a bit more hair."

The Doctor closed his eyes, and Rose waited patiently for him to accept the truth of what she'd told him. He would always be the Doctor to her, no matter what he looked like. And she would always love him.

He drew a shuddering breath, and Rose shifted to get closer to him. His hand dropped to her waist, holding her tight to his side, and his eyes fluttered open. "That's right, Doctor," she whispered. "It's your soul I fell in love with, and I'll always love you, no matter how many times you regenerate."

The Doctor mouth opened, but no words came out. Rose only considered her next move for a second before she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his, catching his lower lip between his.

He remained still for a moment, before his hand moved up to her neck and he turned her head slightly to deepen the kiss. Rose sighed when he flicked his tongue against her lips and she caught a hint of his taste—so familiar, and yet just a little bit different than what she was used to.

 _My Doctor,_ she told him as she scraped her nails over his scalp. _I love you so much._

The Doctor groaned, then his tongue plunged into her mouth and Rose let herself be swept away by his ardor, matching him stroke for stroke until she had to pull out of the kiss to take a breath.

"Wow," she panted, looking up at his red lips. "Always wondered what kissing you would be like."

Before the Doctor could reply, they heard the door open and they knew their stolen moment was at an end. "Time to go, love," the older Doctor said quietly. Rose sighed, then kissed her first Doctor once more before sliding off the jump seat and walking to the door.

The Doctor couldn't resist catching her hand as she walked by him. Letting Rose have these ten minutes alone with his past self had been torturous—not because he was jealous, but simply because after four months without her, letting her out of his sight, even to be with himself, had been almost more than he could bear.

Rose smiled at him and squeezed his fingers. _I'm really here, love,_ she told him. _I'll be waiting for you in our TARDIS._

He swallowed hard and forced himself to let go of her, then he turned to his younger self. "Obviously you'll need to lock these memories."

The other Doctor rolled his eyes. "Figured that out for myself, strangely enough. It's almost like I'm a Time Lord and know how to maintain timelines." He put a hand to his chest. "Oh! Maybe because I am."

The Doctor scowled at his younger self. Meetings with other incarnations of himself were always fraught with tension. It seemed now that Rose was home and safe, they were back to snarking at each other like usual.

"As I was going to say before you interrupted, I think the easiest moment for them to unlock would be as Rose and I leave the planet."

The other Doctor leaned back in the jump seat and crossed his arms over his chest. "Makes as much sense as anything, I suppose," he agreed.

"Good." The Doctor turned to leave, but he paused before closing the door behind him and looked once more at his younger self, slouched in the jump seat. The words were on the tip of his tongue, but they were hard to say, given his adversarial relationship with himself.

"What is it, Pretty Boy?"

The Doctor gritted his teeth, then took a deep breath. "Thank you," he said simply. "I can't tell you how much losing Rose broke me—I don't think I really need to, actually. We would have been lost without you, Doctor."

The other man shifted uncomfortably on the jump seat, and instead of waiting for a reply, the Doctor closed the door and walked back to his TARDIS, where Rose and their future waited for him.

She was standing just inside the door, and he pulled her immediately into his arms. Her laughter chipped away at the last four months of loneliness, and he twirled her around the console before kissing her.

"I love you," he mumbled against her lips before kissing her again.

"Love you too," she replied. Then, to his chagrin, she pulled back and buckled herself into the jump seat. "Let's go," she told him.

The Doctor sighed, but did as she asked and adjusted the coordinates to take them into the Vortex. As they left the planet, he felt a set of memories unlock. Meeting his future self, learning that Rose was pregnant and trapped in a parallel universe…

Then the memories flashed forward an hour, and his throat closed up as he remembered what Rose had told him. "How did you know?" he asked, his voice raspy. He'd never told her how unworthy he'd felt of her then, or how those thoughts still dogged him.

Rose slid off the jump seat and put her hands on his chest, over his hearts. "My Doctor," she whispered. "I know _you._ "

The Doctor drew a shuddering breath and pulled Rose close with his hands on her hips. For a moment, he simply rested his forehead against hers, trying to believe that she was really here with him.

Then Rose tilted her head back, and he bent down to catch her lips in a kiss. Their mouths moved together slowly, each of them wanting to stay in this moment of togetherness as long as possible.

Rose's hands moved up to the back of his neck, curling in the shorter hairs there and drawing a hum of pleasure from the Doctor. But when he moved to deepen the kiss, Rose pulled back and her mouth opened in a wide yawn.

The passion that had just begun to stir in the Doctor was immediately dampened. He moved his hand up to stroke her cheek, noticing the circles under her eyes. "Tired?" he asked quietly.

Rose nodded. "It's been a long couple of months, and it's not easy to sleep when you're pregnant."

Guilt welled up in the Doctor. Even though she didn't say it, he knew she'd pushed herself on the dimension cannon project, determined to find her way home.

To his surprise, Rose scowled at him. "An' you can stop feeling guilty," she said, her voice sharp. "I know you worked just as hard for however long it took you—and don't you dare blame yourself for time moving differently in Pete's World. You might be a Time Lord, but that doesn't mean you're actually in control of all of time."

The Doctor chuckled and kissed her on the forehead. "I missed you, love." He took her hand and led her towards the corridor. "Come on, let's go to bed. I unpacked your suitcase for you while you were saying goodbye to me, and I'm pretty sure I saw pyjamas in there."

Sure enough, Rose found her favourite nightgown—a loose camisole that didn't get bunched up around her belly or thighs—in the bureau. As she changed, she noticed that her brush and makeup were still out on the vanity where she'd left them six months ago, and the book she'd been reading was still on her nightstand. In fact, the room looked like it had hardly been touched.

Again, she remembered the Doctor's words, and this time she was determined to say something. He was already in bed, having just stripped to his pants before lying down. The covers on her side of the bed were pulled back, and he had his arm out, inviting her to curl into his side.

The TARDIS mattress cradled Rose's body so perfectly that she almost sank into it and drifted off to sleep. Instead, she stifled a yawn and rolled onto her side so she could look at the Doctor.

"What's on your mind, love?" he asked as he rolled over to mirror her position. He brushed a strand of hair out of her face.

Rose bit her lip, then nodded. "Tell me what happened while I was gone."

For a moment, the shield in the Doctor's eyes dropped and she could see the lingering grief and fear. Then he closed his eyes and shook his head. "I don't… I can't talk about it," he said, his voice hoarse. "But… I could show you?" he offered. His eyes opened, and she was unsurprised to see tears on his lashes. "Over the bond, it would only take a few seconds to share the memory with you."

"Yeah, okay."

The Doctor's fingers drifted up to her temple, and they both closed their eyes. Through his memories, Rose relived the two weeks since their conversation on Bad Wolf Bay, seeing how lost he'd been when Donna had arrived. Her heart ached when the persistent awareness that he was missing something coalesced into the realisation that she was pregnant. Then she watched him read book after book and not come any closer to finding a way to bring her and the baby home.

A sob caught in her throat when he decided to break the laws of time to recover them. She was unsurprised when one of her own holographic messages appeared to him—that was exactly the kind of situation she'd created those messages for.

And then the memory turned, a glimmer of hope entering his mind when he realised that Donna had been right—he needed to get help from someone as clever as him. Rose laughed when the memory ended with himself standing in front of the mirror, fixing his hair so it looked just right before he came to get them.

His fingers left her temple then, and their eyes fluttered open. Rose ruffled his hair, and he leaned into the touch, a soft purr escaping his lips when she scratched his scalp. She giggled at the blissful expression on his face, then leaned forward to press a kiss to his chest, in between his hearts.

"Thank you for showing me," she told him.

The Doctor sighed and pulled her closer, rolling over until he was on his back and she was draped over his side. "Thank you for saving me."

"That's—" Rose's jaw split on a huge yawn. "That's wha' Bad Wolf is for," she mumbled, wanting to get the words out even though she was falling asleep.

The Doctor ran his fingers through her hair, relishing the fact that Rose was here in his arms once again. "Go to sleep, love," he whispered as her mind quieted. "I'll be here when you wake up."

She mumbled something unintelligible, then he felt her drift off.

He had no intention of sleeping himself, however. Despite the odds, he'd found a way to bring Rose and their baby home, and now the three of them were curled up together in their own bed.

Bad Wolf had saved him yesterday, Bad Wolf had made this new life possible, and Bad Wolf had given them forever. Their separation had certainly proved the adage that "the course of true love never did run smooth," but the reward they'd been given once they'd pressed through to the other side more than made up for all the trials.

They'd made their choice a long time ago, and they were never going to lose each other. He'd brought them home, and now they could keep that promise.


	7. Epilogue

Donna was engrossed in a book on the pyramids when the sound of a child running through the park caught her attention. She looked up just as a little girl skidded around a corner, her arms flailing and blonde pigtails swinging.

The girl tilted her head and looked at her for a long moment before a wide smile stretched across her face. She skipped over to the park bench and jumped up beside Donna.

"Hi! I'm Andi. Mummy told me to find someplace to sit so she could find me."

Donna raised an eyebrow. "And why does Mummy need to find you?"

Brown eyes danced with a mischievous spirit. "I wandered off," Andi replied matter-of-factly.

Donna closed her book. "Did you now?"

Andi nodded, sending her pigtails bobbing again. "Yep!" she said, popping the p. "Daddy says I get it from Mummy."

 _Right… the missing mummy and daddy._ Donna glanced down the path, expecting to see a couple jogging after their errant child in short order. When no one came along, she looked back at the girl, who sat swinging her legs without a care in the world.

"Well, Andi," she said, "my name is Donna. Would you like help finding your mummy and daddy?"

"Nuh-uh." Andi crossed her arms over her chest. "Mummy said she'd be here soon. I just gotta stay in one place."

Donna nodded; she remembered her own parents giving her that instruction, if she ever got lost. "Do you know what your mummy and daddy are called?" she said, switching tactics.

Another toothy grin stretched across the girl's face. "My Daddy is the Doctor," she said proudly. "An' Mummy is Love."

Donna swallowed the sarcastic comment on the tip of her tongue—it wasn't Andi's fault that she'd never equate her own mum with love. "It's good that Mummy loves you, but do you know her name?" she said instead. "You're Andi, I'm Donna—what's Mummy called? What does Daddy call her?" she added.

A deep furrow appeared in her forehead, and Andi shook her head slowly. "Love is what Daddy calls her."

"Well, isn't that precious," Donna mumbled under her breath. It was, but it wouldn't help them find Andi's parents.

Then she mentally rewound everything Andi had said, and her eyes widened. "Hang on, did you say your daddy is the Doctor?"

Andi's frown disappeared, and she nodded eagerly. "Yeah!"

Donna didn't really think there could be more than one person running around just calling himself 'the Doctor,' but she double-checked, just in case. "Is he really tall and skinny, with a long brown coat?"

Andi clapped her hands together eagerly. "You've met Daddy!" she crowed. "I knew you had, when the lines around you were all curly like mine and Mummy's and Daddy's!"

Before Donna could ask what the hell _that_ meant, she heard another set of footsteps racing down the path, and a moment later, a blonde woman appeared. Andi jumped off the bench and ran to her, and the woman swept her up into her arms and held her tight with her eyes closed.

"Oh God, baby! Don't do that to Mummy and Daddy!" she cried.

Another figure appeared on the path, this time one Donna recognised. The Doctor wrapped his arms around his wife and daughter and held them close.

After a long hug, Andi squirmed to be put down, and the Doctor crouched down in front of her. He could still feel his hearts racing, and the lingering fear made his voice sharp. "You know you aren't supposed to wander off, Andrea Suzette. What were you thinking?"

Andi pouted and scuffed her toe against the dirt. "I saw a dog, and I wanted to see if it would talk to me like K-9."

The Doctor sighed and shook his head—of course she did. K-9 adored Andi, calling her "Young Mistress" and following her around like… well, like a puppy. The two of them were inseparable.

He pressed a kiss to his daughter's forehead. "Next time, wait until Mummy and I are done explaining to the policeman why it's okay for us to leave the TARDIS in the middle of the park, okay? We can all go exploring together."

Andi groaned and reached for Rose's hand, like she always did when he scolded her. "But Daddy!" she whined. "If I hadn't wandered off, I wouldn't have found Donna! Look, her lines are squiggly. Does that mean she comes with us?"

The Doctor followed where Andi's chubby finger was pointing and he blinked when he saw a very familiar ginger woman sitting on the park bench. He stood up as Donna Noble walked over to them, a smirk on her face.

"Well, Spaceman, I see you found them. And I see you forgot that you were supposed to bring Rose here to visit me."

 _Oh. Right._ The Doctor tugged on his ear, and Rose looked back and forth between the two of them. "Ah, yes. Sorry about that. We were a little busy with… well, life." He gestured from Rose to Donna. "Rose, this is Donna Noble. I met her just after…"

A lump formed in his throat, just like it always did. Even after almost four years, he still couldn't talk about Canary Wharf and Bad Wolf Bay without feeling the heartbreaking loss all over again.

Rose's eyes widened, and she stepped towards Donna, her hand held out in welcome, and Donna took it readily. "Thank you for helping him that day."

Now that she was right in front of them, the Doctor could see why Andi was so excited about Donna. Her timeline split and doubled back on itself as only a time traveller's would.

He bounced lightly on his toes, and both women looked back at him. "Do you see it, love?" he asked. "The timelines?"

Rose frowned, then looked at Donna again.

Donna shifted, and the skin around her mouth tightened. "What are you talking about, Martian?"

The Doctor sensed the moment Rose saw it. "What he means, Donna… is have you ever thought about doing a little travelling?"

Andi darted forward and stared up at Donna with her hands clasped behind her back. The Doctor bit back a smile as he pictured the pleading expression his daughter was probably giving Donna—he had yet to meet someone who could say no to her when she looked at them like that.

"Please, Donna?" she begged, swaying back and forth. "You hafta come with us. We can go anywhere in time and space!"

Donna looked from Andi up to the Doctor, and he nodded in response to the uncertainty on her face. "We'd love to have you join us, Donna."

After a brief pause, Donna nodded and Andi cheered and took her hand. "All right then," she said. "Time and space it is." Her lips curved up in a smirk. "Maybe if someone else travels with you and calls Rose by her actual name, your daughter won't think her name is Love."

The Doctor rolled his eyes as he reached for Rose's hand. He refused to be embarrassed by how much he loved his wife.

"I have a feeling that won't be the only thing Andi learns from you," he said drily.

Rose and Donna both burst out laughing, and after staring at the women with a confused little furrow between her eyebrows for a moment, Andi's giggles joined in. The Doctor reached for her and swung her up onto his shoulder, and then he led the way back to the TARDIS and on to their next adventure.


End file.
